Room 303: Alec Soth’s Visions of Venice
Alec Soth shoots a series of images from Hotel Danieli in Venice, inspired by early color images from Dennis Stock and Erich Hartmann
Earlier this year, Alec Soth delved into Magnum’s vast Italian archive, a collection of over 5,000 unseen color images documenting the country’s landscapes, traditions, and spirited streets. Inspired by the visual narratives of Venice, he selected 10 unseen images of the city from the 1960s-80s, unearthing a vignette of the city’s past.
Tracing Stock’s steps in Hotel Danieli, Soth traveled to Venice for the first time to shoot a new series in response to his curation. Titled “Room 303,” the series immerses us in a visual diary, constructing a poetic dialogue between past and present and revealing a personal, enigmatic vision of the city.
The series was made as part of the “A World in Color” series, in which a Magnum photographer responds to a selection of unseen color images found in the Magnum color library archive in Paris — a melding of past and present generations of the agency. Created in collaboration with Fujifilm, Soth used a FUJIFILM GFX100 II to produce his new series, which was shown for the first time at FUJIKINA MILAN in May 2025.
Alec Soth: I’d never been to Venice before. But like Hollywood or Disneyworld, it’s a place that feels pre-installed in the imagination. It would be difficult for anyone to see such a place with complexity and depth, but it is doubly difficult for a foreigner passing through who doesn’t speak the language. One can see this in the Magnum Unseen slides of Venice. Even seasoned documentarians cannot resist being seduced by its shimmering surfaces. I understood why photographers like Erich Hartmann and Dennis Stock chose experimental techniques to attempt to escape the obvious. I also understood when they just gave themselves over to the beauty.
When I saw Dennis Stock’s pictures at the Hotel Danieli, I imagined myself in his shoes. What would it be like to stay in this legendary hotel that has hosted the likes of Proust and Monet? How would I process this place?
"Photography is always a balancing act between reality and the world of the imagination."
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I decided to keep Venice mostly in my imagination. The gondolas were right outside my window, but I stayed in my hotel. I made Room 303 at Hotel Danieli a kind of art studio to process the dream world outside my window.
"In Venice, the only way I could process this mythic place was in the confines of my hotel room."
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I started by making a camera obscura, projecting that world upside down. I laid on the floor and watched tourists parading on my ceiling. The only real people I encountered were the hotel staff in their crisp, five-star uniforms. Photography is always a balancing act between reality and the world of the imagination. In Venice, the only way I could process this mythic place was in the confines of my hotel room.
Discover more from the Magnum, Fujifilm and MPP series “A World in Color” here.
